Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-56943 discloses a device that performs preliminary sterilization on a preform before blow molding with a gaseous medium containing heat-treated oxygenated water or electron beams, performs main sterilization on a molded container, which is formed by blow molding, with the gaseous medium or electron beams, and then fills the molded container.
The device can effectively sterilize a durable preform, only requiring slight main sterilization for a short time.
The invention described in Patent Literature 1, however, requires the installation of sterilization devices at the entrance and exit of a blow molding machine, disadvantageously increasing the overall size of equipment.
The present invention has been devised to solve the problem. An advantage of the present invention is an electron beam sterilization device that can reduce the overall size of equipment and satisfactorily sterilize a container, and sterile filling equipment.